Other, Fact Sheet
Have you ever wished that your child came with an instruction manual? Sesame Street Tool Kits are the next best things. They provide opportunities to build closeness and confidence, make learning fun, and keep your child's world safe and secure.Topics include: asthma, autism, divorce, finances, healthy habits, illness, incarceration, military families, school readiness, and more. (Author abstract modified)
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Journal Article As laws and attitudes have become friendlier to queer families in recent decades, gay fathers have experienced increased visibility in and through both media and scholarship. However, this visibility has been distributed unevenly along normative patterns of marital status, race, class, and kinship. Findings suggest that single gay fathers, gay fathers of color, and gay fathers who had children in heterosexual contexts occupy marginalized statuses within the gay fatherhood community. The experiences of gay fathers on the margins highlight the negative consequences of gay fatherhood discourses…
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Journal Article Research indicates that fathers’ criminal behavior can be problematic for children through multiple pathways, yet few studies have examined the effect of fathers’ kinship networks in this process. This study examines the association between fathers’ criminal behavior and involvement with their children and the extent to which a father’s relationships with individuals in his extended family network moderate this association. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article Researchers have identified father absence as a contributor to juvenile delinquency. Consequently, politicians and community leaders are making efforts to re-engage fathers. However, it is possible that the presence of fathers is not, in itself, a substantial protective factor and, in some cases, can even be more detrimental than father absence. Employing a diverse sample of male juvenile offenders in the U.S. (ages 13–17), the present study examined the differential effects of absent fathers and harsh fathers on delinquency. Results indicated that youth in the harsh-father group engaged in…
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Journal Article Depression in fathers in the postnatal period is associated with an increased risk of some adverse child developmental outcomes. One possible mechanism for the familial transmission of risk is through the negative effects of depression on parenting and the parent-child relationship. So far, evidence indicates that depressed fathers tend to be more withdrawn in their early interactions. However, the interaction dimensions studied to date may not be able to detect and accurately classify unique features of father-infant play – including physically stimulating and highly rousing episodes of play…
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Journal Article Why do fathers matter? Recent conceptual and theoretical advances regarding father–child relationships have demonstrated that fathers affect children's outcomes both directly and indirectly. To attain a complete developmental account of the ecologically rich contexts of child development, in this article, we recommend best practices regarding the conceptualization and assessment of father–child relationships that reflect contemporary family life. We also discuss conceptual and measurement issues pertaining to father–child relationships in different family configurations, including those with…
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Journal Article Despite the good reasons in which poor health could impede parenting, relatively little research considers this possibility. This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N?=?3,376) and propensity score matching to examine the relationship between maternal and paternal health limitations—health conditions that limit the amount or type of work one can do—and mother- and father-reported parenting stress, cooperation in parenting, and engagement with children. First, the authors find that mothers' and fathers' health limitations are associated with greater parenting…
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Journal Article While research exists on maternal preferences and decisions about child care, fathers are an underrepresented population in this literature. In an effort to fill this gap, this study examines the types of child care preferred, the level of involvement in the decision-making process, as well as the importance of certain characteristics of nonparental care in a sample of 130 fathers of children under the age of 6 years (6.2% of whom did not live with the child). Sixty-four percent of fathers in this sample indicated active involvement in making child care decisions with the child’s mother and…
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Journal Article Relatively little is known about the characteristics of fathers who receive social worker contact. This lack of knowledge also extends to male partners of mothers who, while not biologically related to the children, may also be significant caregivers. Increased knowledge is vital to inform the provision of services for whole families. This research note examines the characteristics of these men using a sample of individuals from a large-scale British cohort study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). We compare the characteristics of fathers with those of mothers who…
Many of the fathers who participate in fatherhood programs may have experienced trauma. However, they are not always easy to identify, so it is important for programs to be “trauma-informed” to provide reliable and effective services for all fathers. This brief highlights the importance of a trauma-informed approach and offers tips and considerations for programs that serve fathers.
